Never Underestimate 800s | Reader's Best Games #1 - OneTrueBapee

The title says it all. You should never underestimate a player no matter their rating. Just because there is a three digit number (specifically in this case, 836 and 769) beside their name does not mean that they cannot play beautiful and accurate chess. If you're a higher rated player, perhaps 1500, and you come face to face with an 800 OTB or online, you can be very surprised by what you see. Always play as if you expect that your opponent will play the best move, even if that person is rated relatively low. If you play an inferior move, expecting your 800-rated opponent not to reply with the best move and crush you, you can be very wrong. 

Intro complete. This is the first post of a new series that I'm starting, analyzing and presenting the best games of my readers and followers that are submit to me. However, I'll be doing multiple series at once, so each post of a series will be more separated. This way there will be more variety of topics. 

If you want to submit a game or games to me, there are a few conditions, which I hope are not too strict. They were also posted in a previous post, but I'll put them here again with some slight changes on the frequency of submissions. Here they are:

• Please, try not to submit games that show one person winning because the other person made a gross blunder of material that was unforced. That isn't the kind of game that we want to see.

• Don't submit games that show one player falling for a very, very cheap trick, for example the Scholar's Mate. I won't set a limit for how "cheap" the trap or tactic is, and you can be the judge of that yourself, but as a general guideline, don't submit something that would be obvious to anyone who's just taken a few lessons and played a couple of games. This goes with the first condition.

• Don't send me more than two games a day. I'm usually online at least once a day, but if I'm offline for a while, perhaps going on vacation, it wouldn't be a great "welcome back" to see a pile of links. Also keep in mind that I will not have time to analyze them all.

• Pick the games carefully. It's unlikely that if you send me multiple games I will post them all, for the sake of variety, but I will always post the games that are instructive, thematic, or well-played by both sides. All of the readers want to see good games.

• All types of games are welcome (as long as they meet the criteria listed above)! Dazzling attacking games, long, hard-fought positional games, perfectly played endgames, and whatever else. Keep in mind that sacrificial attacks aren't the only reader-friendly games... 

That's it! Other than that, all games are welcome and appreciated! This series depends on my readers more than ever, for obvious reasons.

Now onto today's game. As I've said before, this is where I got the inspiration for this blog series. OneTrueBapee chatted me asking me if I could analyze a game that he submitted in my blog, and look where it got us! 

OneTrueBapee was playing black in this game against GrandMasterSlayer-John. The time control was 30|0, so a moderately fast time control, but gives the players decent amounts of time to think too. That's something I forgot to mention too, all games played in any time control are welcome, as long as the quality is sufficient. Like, blitz, bullet, and even hyperbullet are welcome as long as the moves are understandable and there's a reason why it's one of your best games. Anyway. The game featured was wild, with the advantage swinging back and forth until black claimed it and held on to it until the very end. Somehow even though black had 1 blunder and an inaccuracy but no mistakes his accuracy was a huge 98.1%, comparable to very high-level play! Giant compared to white's 72.5%, making 2 mistakes and 4 inaccuracies. 

The opening was a Scotch Four Knights game, which tends to be a very quiet and drawish opening with more than a 50% draw rate after move 5! However this game is different. Watch as these two 800s battle it out and see how you think they played!

Convinced that 800s can do great things yet? Me too. Remember to never underestimate your opponent no matter the rating, and always strive to play the best move. Thanks again to OneTrueBapee for making this happen!

Send in some games, and I'll be back soon!